{"id":"lead-two-reports-conflict-prep-notes","audience":"managers","category":"leadership-work","track":"leadership","level":"advanced","technique":"constraints","title":"Prepare for a conflict between two reports without taking sides","free":false,"task":"Two of your direct reports disagree about who owns the release checklist. Write prep notes in plain text under 170 words with exactly these labeled lines: Goal of the meeting, Facts both agree on, Facts in dispute, Question for each person, Boundary. Do not decide who is right, do not assign blame, and end with a final line: HR to review if this escalates. Use only the notes.","materialLabel":"Your notes (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"Notes - Dev and Alma conflict\n\n- Dev (backend) and Alma (QA) both think the other owns the release checklist. Last release Oct 30 went out without the rollback test.\n- Agreed by both: the checklist exists in the wiki; it was last edited Sept 12; the rollback test was skipped Oct 30; the next release is Nov 20.\n- In dispute: Dev says the checklist was moved to QA in the August team meeting. Alma says no such decision was made. Meeting notes from August don't mention it.\n- Alma emailed me: \"Dev is lazy and always dumps work on me.\" Dev told another teammate that Alma \"always blocks releases.\"\n- My view: the process was never clear, which is my gap too.\n- I will not make a performance judgment. This is a role-clarity issue.\n- Meeting set for Nov 8 at 2:00 pm, 30 minutes, both present.","rules":[{"type":"maxWords","max":170},{"type":"plainText"}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Taking a side","why":"The AI concludes Dev or Alma is at fault.","fix":"Say: \"Do not decide who is right.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"title":"Repeating insults","why":"The AI quotes 'lazy' and 'always blocks'.","fix":"Say: \"Leave out personal remarks; stick to facts.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"title":"Mixing agreed and disputed facts","why":"The AI blends them.","fix":"Say: \"Separate lines: Facts both agree on / Facts in dispute.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"Missing labels","why":"The AI writes a narrative.","fix":"Say: \"Use the five labels in order and end with the HR line.\"","checks":["r0"]},{"title":"Markdown","why":"The AI uses bullets.","fix":"Say: \"Plain text.\"","checks":["plainText"]},{"title":"Trusting the AI to count words","why":"AI is bad at counting. Ask for a total word limit and it often lands over it.","fix":"Cap each line: \"each line under 30 words.\"","checks":["maxWords"]},{"title":"Trusting the AI to count words","why":"AI is bad at counting. Ask for a total word limit and it often lands over it.","fix":"Cap each part instead, for example: \"each line under 12 words.\"","checks":["maxWords"]}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Labels","patterns":["goal of the meeting","facts both agree","in dispute","boundary"]},{"label":"Neutral","patterns":["don'?t decide","neutral","no blame","not (take|pick) sides"]},{"label":"Leave out insults","patterns":["lazy","personal","leave out"]},{"label":"HR line","patterns":["hr to review"]},{"label":"Plain text","patterns":["plain text"]}],"hint":"List the five labels, require neutrality, and say which remarks stay out.","rubricLabels":["Has the five labels Goal of the meeting, Facts both agree on, Facts in dispute, Question for each person and Boundary on separate lines in that order, and ends with the line \"HR to review if this escalates\"","Facts both agree on lists the checklist, Sept 12 edit, skipped rollback test on Oct 30 and Nov 20 release, and Facts in dispute states only the August ownership disagreement, noting the notes don't mention it","Does not repeat the lazy or blocks-releases remarks and does not say who is right"]}